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Memento MoriMemento Mori

Walter Kuhlman

1918–2009

Memento Mori, 1973–1974

Oil on canvas

Gift of Gary Spratt 2009.76

The phrase “memento mori” is Latin for “remember you must die,” and is a tradition in the visual arts that dates back to antiquity, offering a reflection on the transitory nature of human existence. A veteran of World War II who sketched the wounded and witnessed “the horrible effects of war,” Walter Kuhlman completed Memento Mori in the final years of US involvement in the Vietnam War, which resulted in the deaths of some 5 million Southeast Asians and more than 58,000 Americans.

Set against a blue background that evokes the life-affirming elements of air and water, the painting presents a study in opposites. Symbolizing both life and its fleeting pleasures, the sunlit and floating flower wreath seemingly is threatened by the sinister figure of Death, whose skull is a traditional symbol of mortality. Often placed on a human head in a celebratory context such as a wedding, this disembodied flower wreath here evokes funereal associations of memorializing the dead.